Appetite For Japan

Dining

Parfait from Maid Cafe Shibuya Tokyo
Anime and gaming theme cafesCafesFeaturedKawaiiOther anime and gamingTheme cafes, restaurants and barsTheme diningWeird Japan
appetiteforjapan

Maid Cafe: Maidreamin Digitized Cafe in Shibuya

Themed cafes are a big thing in Japan, and one of the most popular type of themed cafe is the maid cafe (メイド喫茶 or メイドカフ). You might see these included in lists of crazy cafes and weird themed restaurants, and more specifically, in amongst a sub-category of unusual themed eateries known as cosplay restaurants (コスプレ系飲食店). If you’re interested in trying out some themed dining options in Japan, you might want to think about adding a maid cafe to your itinerary.

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Yokohama Ramen Museum
Food theme parksFood theme parksMuseums and exhibitionsOutside of TokyoTheme cafes, restaurants and barsTheme diningTheme parksWeird Japan
appetiteforjapan

Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum: not your average themed restaurant

A couple of years ago I read about a ramen museum in Yokohama and added it to my 2013 Japan itinerary. We ran out of time, so put it on our itinerary again in 2014. This time we actually made it! Officially it is called Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum, but is also referred to as the Yokohama Ramen Museum. I loved the idea that a country could be so fond of one of its dishes that it would dedicate a whole museum to it. I’d heard that it was really great, and I had images in my mind of a big museum all about ramen, with some food tasting at the end. This sounded like something a little different, I was pretty excited.

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Artnia building in Shinjuku Tokyo Japan
Anime and gaming shoppingAnime and gaming theme cafesCafesFinal FantasyMuseums and exhibitionsOther anime and gamingPopular CultureShoppingTheme cafes, restaurants and barsTheme diningTheme parks and exhibitions
appetiteforjapan

Artnia: the egg-shaped Square Enix store and cafe

Located in an egg shaped building in Shinjuku, Artnia is both a cafe and Square Enix merchandise store. For those who are not familiar with Square Enix, this is the company responsible for Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and other games. Restaurants, bars and cafes associated with games (as well as anime) are amongst the things that Japan does best, and Artnia is no exception.

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Planetarium Bar
BarsTheme cafes, restaurants and barsTheme diningWeird Japan
appetiteforjapan

Planetarium Bar Tokyo: Japan’s darkest bar

Planetarium Bar (プラネタリウム BAR) is one of a number of venues that comes up on those lists of “Top 10 Weird Themed Bars in Japan” and “Top 5 Crazy Cafes in Tokyo”, but not many people seem to have actually visited this one. When I read about such venues on these types of lists and then I visit the bar/restaurant/cafe for myself, I’m often surprised at how different the place is to what I was expecting. Well, Planetarium Bar was certainly no exception to this rule!

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Fast foodHalloween
appetiteforjapan

Kuro Burger: Burger King’s limited addition black burger

One of the highlights of travelling to Japan around Halloween is that the food gets even more interesting. I’m not sure whether Burger King’s KURO burger was specifically for Halloween, but it was available from 19 September 2014 until early November. At the same time, McDonalds had its own black burger which was discontinued on 1 November (the day following Halloween – I learnt this the hard way and missed out!). So whether they were released to coincide with Halloween or not, I think the burgers certainly have a bit of a Halloween flavour (see what I did there?).

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